Quick video of the roping. I could only watch this so many times.
After the roping, we started north towards Prescott. There was a supposed ghost town in Stanton, which was about 6.5 miles down a dirt road. I debated whether or not to go, but figured I could turn around if it was bad. The road ended up being in pretty good shape until the last 1.5 miles. That was rough, but not the worst I've driven on!
Where the old buildings are/ghost town is an RV park. I wandered around and checked out what was there. Not terribly exciting, but I did meet three nice men who shared some info on gold mining. I really didn't realize that people still find gold, but that's why a lot of the RVers spend the winter here. Interesting! They told me where you would look for gold. Either on the mountain or down a wash where the gold might run.
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| Waiting patiently outside like the good girl that she is - as I check out the little museum |
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| I guess it's time to clean her window! |
Prescott, AZ - I had considered staying the night somewhere around Prescott and then heading to Lenore and Matt's the next day, but it's less than 1/5 hours away, so I just walked around town for a bit, and hit Trader Joe's, before heading there.
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| This horse head, which is super cool, is priced at $47,500!!! Apparently is was done by a famous artist who is now deceased. |
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| I went into this bakery because I saw a sign "Dogs welcome!" They asked if Zoe would like a peanut butter cookie (of course she would!) and she grabbed a human 4" cookie for Zoe. Nope! I gave her some of it, but ate the rest myself. I got something else, but they wouldn't let me pay for the cookie, which was so good and felt very generous. |
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| Poor Zoe, those saloon swinging doors at The Palace were quite dangerous as people walked through and just let the doors swing, not being aware of Zoe. |
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| The waitresses were dressed as "ladies of the evening" |
We arrived at Lenore and Matt's and visited for the evening. I stayed in the van that first night because I didn't feel like gathering my things. And it was really cold overnight, so I felt better being in the van anyway. I'm very confused because each night, The Weather Channel said that it would be about 10 degrees warmer than actuality. When I would look at the app in the morning, it would read 20 degrees instead of the 30 that it predicted. I wonder why it consistently does this. And 20 is very different from 30 when thinking about water in the van. So, I turned on the hot water heater for the first 4 nights and set the heater to 47 degrees to make sure that nothing froze. I really prefer to be in the van when it's cold like that so I am more likely to be aware if there are any issues. Thankfully all went well.
Lenore and Matt are heading out for a trip on Thursday and were planning to take their car to the Phoenix airport, but after talking about it with me (I said I'd be fine driving Big Bertha), they decided to take the shuttle. They said it was really the better option, but I don't know if they were just being nice and leaving me their car. (Which I really did appreciate!)
1/27 - I had signed up for a water color pencil class in Cottonwood, so off I went (in Lenore's car).
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| Photo on the left is what we were going to draw. These are the drawings of all the students and teacher, except one didn't want to share. I just liked seeing how similar/different they were. Mine is top left (too tentative) and the instructor's is to the right of mine. I really enjoyed it and am now excited to use my watercolor pencils now that I know how to use them! |
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| Enjoying a toy, which she rarely does. I had forgotten about the toy after she had removed the stuffing and squeakers until a couple of days later she vomited it up in the morning. Yikes!! |
We didn't really do much, but time goes so quickly. Lenore and I seem to be able to chat for hours!
L&M are gone and I'm just hanging with the deadbeat pups!
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| Misty and Bertie |
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| More recharging time in the sun |
On Sunday, I finally left the house and did something! I was just going to go for a drive in the lovely Sedona Red Rocks, but ended up going for a hike in Boynton Canyon. It's a 6.5 mile hike, but I had to get back to the pups, so I only ended up hiking about 5 miles total, which for me is a lot these days! I had no plan for a certain hike, but figured any way I went I couldn't go wrong in this area!
There have been several times recently when I've felt really fatigued after doing very little and I was getting a bit concerned about what that might mean, but I was not at all fatigued on the long hike, so that made me very happy!
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| You can see the walls from ruins in that hole. Apparently there are thousands of ruins in this area. |
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| Full moon rising. |
After staying in the house, and as lovely as it is, I'm missing our little home.
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| Zoe still sleeping after I and the other two pups had gotten up and gone outside already. |
Zoe's hearing is definitely getting worse and she seems like she's aging very quickly now. She doesn't have any interest in walking here in the neighborhood. It's odd because there are tons of dogs here and thus plenty for her to sniff. I don't know if it's the discomfort of her elbow or what. (NOTHING is helping with her limping!) Not the Adequan shots, not the Amantadine and Gabapentin. 😫 It's making me very sad.
I took Zoe into Cottonwood and we hiked on the Jail Trail. She was much more interested in walking on the trail than in the development. We had walked with Lenore and Misty and Bertie before Lenore left and I wonder if something happened on those walks that I missed that is causing her to not want to walk here.
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| Sleepy girls - Zoe and Misty |
So, I'm repainting the cabinets in my van - just the green, which is all the lower cabinets. This is really hard for me, because I haven't done a lot of painting and I'm a perfectionist and thus a procrastinator. I got a sample of the color I wanted and forced myself to paint it in a very obvious area (you can see it a bit on the very left in the photo below), so that I would have to go through with it.
It took me way longer to paint than I expected! Basically 3 days and most areas needed a 2nd coat. I should have done a full 2nd coat, but I basically just did it where I could see through. Lenore was kind enough to help and painted the drawers that I had removed and placed in the garage.
I'm happy with the new color! I'm a little concerned that it won't be as durable as the original coat (if I got bad info) and I am so surprised by how long it takes for paint to be fully cured. I read that it's up to 1 month! I think that with the dry air here, that it must be shorter. There was a spot that pulled the new paint away when I removed the tape, but mostly it went well. I will have to be careful with it for a while. I do have a bit of leftover paint for touch-ups. And I learned that q-tips can be used for touching up, which is genius!
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| After! I tried taking a photo after I cleaned it up, but after doing an IOS update, the color is totally washed out... 😟 So, this is the best I have... |
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| Fortunately for me, there was a little room left for me. |
Matt, Len, and I went to the Crane Petroglyph site. It was great because there was a volunteer there sharing a bunch of information about what is believed to be a farming calendar and other info. There were photos of the sun shining through a crack for the winter solstice and the calendar showing based on shadows from a couple of rocks jutting out. Usually I go and look at the petroglyphs or pictographs and think, "that's cool" and leave. I really appreciated being given some information about it all.
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| Lovely trees against the blue sky |
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| Chapel of the Holy Cross |
Matt had to do some reset for the security cameras at
Amitabha Stupa, so we walked around there (I went last time on my way up to Flagstaff). It's such a lovely place!  |
| Sunset back at Len and Matt's. This was probably the best sunset during my whole time there. |
2/8 - I went on the Verde Valley Train tour from Clarkdale. Lenore and Matt were happy to watch Zoe while I went on this 4 hour train ride. It was very pretty and I enjoyed Monica, my table mate. I also chatted with several others, including Claudia, who also has a van, but isn't full time. I enjoyed meeting people and the gorgeous views. There was a speaker giving info as we went along, but it was too quiet to hear, but when in the outside car, where I spent much of the trip, Brandt shared a lot of information along the way, which was enjoyable. This railroad was built for the mining industry in Jerome (just up the hill from Clarkdale), and you can see what a feat it was, especially back then. It is still used to transfer materials when the tour isn't running.
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| Boondocking on BLM land. I was told you need 4x4. Thankfully I wasn't looking for a place to stay. |
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| Do you see a couple of bullfrogs?? |
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| In Perkinsville, the engines switched places for the return trip. |
Lenore and I went to Jerome the next day. The train ride got me excited to go back, so I convinced Len to join me. We mostly just walked around, enjoying the arts and crafts, and cards in the shops. And we had lunch at the Haunted Hamburger. Excellent burger, even better carrot cake! I should have taken a photo of the carrot cake. The serving was easily for 3 - 4 people and oh so good!!!
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| The remains of an old grocery store |
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| We stopped into the Glass blowing/pottery making studio and because glass is so expensive these days, he's only doing pottery. He offered to demonstrate and it was so interesting. He had a pitcher he had already shaped, but he showed us how he decorated it and created and added the handle. We really enjoyed this as we hadn't seen this part of the process before. |
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| View from our table at the Haunted Hamburger |
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| The Asylum, now hotel |
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| The Surgeon's House, now a B&B |
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| The Haunted Hamburger with skeletons climbing the building |
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| I guess she missed me. This chair really is NOT big enough for both of us - note her butt on my lap. |
2/10 -
When in Jerome, Len had purchased some funny cards and I took photos of them. I'd like to have taken more, but photos were discouraged...
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| These go with the mug shots above. They had so many great cards and what a fun idea to take mug shots and put them on funny cards. (I don't know if they are real mug shots.) |
A few more funny cards that Lenore bought:
I am planning to head out soon and I wanted to get in one more day of hiking knowing Zoe was safely in a house instead of in the van. So, I headed to Sedona to do the Birthing Cave hike, which offered some lovely views. Thankfully it wasn't very busy. There were two guys from MA when I arrived and then after they left two more people came. It would be a challenge to have a lot of people there because the floor of the cave is very sloped.
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| Heading towards Sedona. So gorgeous everywhere you look! |
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| Start of the Birthing Cave hike |
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| Some cute javelinas grazing |
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| The cave from below |
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| These cacti were right on the trail. Yikes! |
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| View of the back of the cave |
This hike was only 2 miles, so I decided to walk on another trail to extend another 2 miles.
I headed towards Honanki Heritage Site, but the gates close at 3 and it was already 2:30 and once I hit the dirt road, I knew it was going to be slow going, even in L&Ms AWD VW SUV. So, I turned around and saw this lovely canyon with a big parking area, so I pulled in and hiked Fay Canyon. Apparently there is an arch along the trail, but I didn't know about it and on the way out I decided against taking the side trail as it was getting late. I'm so glad I stopped and did this hike. It was mostly flat and then at the end you climb up the rocks to get an amazing view. I'm so glad I read that in All trails, because there is an End of Trail sign before the rocks. The view up there was amazing!
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| The view from the road that enticed me |
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| Start of the hike |
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| Some great rock formations along the trail |
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| The view from the top |
After leaving Fay Canyon, I decided to take the Red Rocks loop road and came across this amazing view:
It was a good day!!
I had planned to leave the next day, but after trying to run my last errands and get prescription dog food for Zoe, I stayed one more day. That allowed us to go out to dinner at Bocca's in Cottonwood, which had awesome pizza and drinks.
I never did find food for Zoe after calling around to many veterinarians in the area. I never thought it would be so hard! I didn't realize that not all vets can sell me the food without having seen Zoe, even though I had a prescription from another vet. The ones that could didn't have the food.
After 2.5 weeks of the comforts of a home and Lenore and Matt's great company, it was time to move along.
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| I wonder if they were sad about me leaving... Probably only because Lenore and Matt were out. |
I was heading off to the Tonto National Forest/Monument and then the check engine light appeared on my dash. The van drove find, but who knows, so I called North Scottsdale Mercedes, which was about 1.5 hours away. I had actually been there before for them to fix a rattle (and was going to do an oil change, but they discouraged me at the time) and they said that if I got there as soon as I could (2:30), they could fit me in to take a look. So off I went. I didn't have to backtrack too far to get on the highway south to Phoenix. I told them that I'd really like to be able to take the van because I live in it, so they only diagnosed it, gave it back to me, and I was told to bring it back in the morning, anytime after 7 AM. Josh was my "advisor" and was great. So, after two experiences with North Scottsdale Mercedes service, I can highly recommend them! I asked Josh lots of questions about the van, which I've often wondered about. He also confirmed the other woman's recommendation to do the oil changes at the recommended 15k miles. He said that they've had great success with the gas engine in the sprinter. The sprinter also can assess driving conditions and tell if you should change the oil more often. I had been thinking I'd start doing them every 10k, but maybe not.
Using iOverlander, I found a park I could stay at and when I arrived I saw there were people playing pickleball, so I got to play - so that was a bonus.
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| Walking around the park, I saw many ducks on the pond, but these two thought the fenced in pool was a better option. |
So, I brought the van in around 9 AM and they took Bertha in. We hung out at the dealership for a while
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| I wondered if I should get one of these (only $200k+) to tow. 😂 |
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| Zoe and I walked to the Container Shop next door to see what we could find and then went to Butters Pancakes and Cafe. Wow, this place was busy with a 35 minute wait on Friday at 10:30ish. |
One of the plusses of ending up here was I was able to get Zoe's food at Petsmart.
$921 later, after they replaced the chewed wires (2.5 weeks of mostly just being parked at L&Ms gave the pack rats a chance to do some damage). I had chatted with Joe and he mentioned that his parents had some rodent damage to their RV and their comprehensive insurance covered it (minus deductible of course). Good info, so I'm going to try it!
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| So true! |
Another plus of ending up in Phoenix, was Zoe and I got to visit Jack and Kathy and Abby (friends/neighbors in Blue Mtn Lake). We only stayed one night and stayed in the van. People have a hard time understanding why I'd want to do that, but it's really sooo much easier and yes, it's comfortable! 😀
So, plusses of having to reroute to Phoenix - I got to play pickleball, I got to visit with Jack and Kathy, I got Zoe's dog food, I got some good info from my Mercedes advisor. It's so nice to be able to just go with the flow.
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| Zoe and Abby hanging out in the back yard. |
Love those cards and the red rocks of Sedona. Hoping Zoe gets some spunk back.
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